Vaccines

Most US adults support laws allowing teens to get medical care for sexually transmitted infections without parental consent. Less than half of US adults support laws allowing teens to receive HPV vaccine without their parents’ consent. For those opposing teen vaccination without parental consent, the parental decision-making role was most important.

Safety of vaccines and medicines top the list of children’s medical research topics that parents view as very important. Research about environmental links to child health and research on cancer are viewed as more important than research on leading causes of injuries.

About one-half of parents worry that their children will get H1N1 flu; about two-thirds worry about safety of H1N1 vaccine. H1N1 vaccination is much less likely when parents worry more about vaccine safety (10%) than when parents worry more about H1N1 illness (56%).

Receipt of H1N1 vaccine closely tied to having a health care provider strongly recommend the vaccine. Only 2 in 5 parents reported that their children’s providers strongly recommended H1N1 vaccine; only 1 in 5 adults reported that their own providers strongly recommended H1N1 vaccine.

87% of adults support mandatory H1N1 vaccination for health care workers in the event of an H1N1 outbreak. Only 38% of health care workers plan to get the H1N1 vaccine.

Only 40% of parents plan to have their children get the H1N1 flu vaccine—much fewer than those who plan to have children get the seasonal flu vaccine. Hispanic parents are more likely than white or black parents to plan to have their children get the H1N1 flu vaccine.

Almost one-half of parents who vaccinated their young children against the flu said that this was the first time their children had received the vaccine. Flu vaccination rates among young children, high-risk adults, and seniors remain below national target levels that all people in these groups be vaccinated.

65% of parents plan to have their children up to 5 years old receive flu vaccine in 2007-08. Of parents whose children did not receive the flu vaccine in 2006-07, 32% plan to vaccinate their children up to 5 years old in 2007-08.

Only 44% of parents support a school mandate for the HPV vaccine for girls entering 9th grade. Parent support is stronger (68%) for a mandate for another new teen vaccine that prevents tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough (Tdap). Parents of older children are less likely to favor a mandate for the HPV vaccine.